Winning It All Back

I am a little bit late here, but I was lazy and then busy so I did not post at my usual time. But what the hell, I will chime in on the topic of the day!

I saw the Bush speech. He is getting better at speaking, I did not detect any drooling or stuttering. At least no major stuttering. Also I did not hear any made up words! He has finally learned to stick to the script someone else writes for him.

But while listening, I could not help but to think the following.

If you have ever been to Las Vegas you have seen the type. Go to the casino floor at 3 or 4 AM. You will see them. The degenerate gamblers. The desperate souls who have convinced themselves that if they just put another $20 in the slot machine, or double up their bet just one more time, that they can win back all their losses. Yea they are down hundreds or even thousands of dollars. But the progressive jackpot on that machine is well over a million dollars! If you can just hit triple bars on all four slot machine wheels on a maximum bet you can win it all!

And so, they keep pulling the handle. And they do not stop pulling till they are out of money, and have maxed out their credit card cash advances, and pulled out the maximum amount they can on their ATM card. But they just KNOW that the next person to sit at their machine after they leave is going to win.

The machine HAS TO pay out sooner or later, right?

Wrong. The machine does not have to pay out ever. That progressive jackpot is the result of many machines linked together across several casinos and sometimes even multiple states. The Wheel Of Fortune machine at the MGM Grand may never pay out, the progressive jackpot is won by someone at Bally's. Or maybe even the Las Vegas Airport. Who knows.

Bush sounded a lot like one of those people. He knows he can win it all back if he can just get more credit. 20,000 more troops. Just give him that and he can win it all. The question now is do we extend the credit to him?

There will likely not be a Friday or Saturday post, as I am bailing out of Dade County for the weekend. I will be in and around the Lakeland Florida area.